02562 Rendering - Introduction

Course description from the DTU course catalogue.

Course Overview

Rendering is to use a mathematical model on a computer for creating a digital image that looks like the real three-dimensional world. The course objective is to introduce the ray tracing techniques commonly used in computer graphics systems for general/off-line rendering (photorealistic images, material appearance modelling, computer animation, scientific visualization, mapping techniques) as well as providing some experience with developing algorithms and implementing parts of such systems. In particular, it is the purpose to get acquainted with algorithms for simulating light-material interaction and to implement parts of a graphics system that can render relatively complicated objects, scenes, and illumination conditions.

Timetable

Calender weeks: 35-41 + 43-48.

Weekly timetable:

Wednesday	13-14	lecture	Building 305, Room IT005 (and Zoom)
	14-17	exercises	Building 305, Room IT005

Hand-in deadline: Monday 20 December 2021 at 23:59.

Textbooks and Notes

The main textbook for this course is

B	Steve Marschner and Peter Shirley et al. Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, fourth edition. CRC Press / Taylor and Francis, 2016. [webpage]

In addition, we may upload papers to DTU Learn that serve sometimes as part of the curriculum, sometimes as supplementary reading material.

Prerequisites

When participating in this course, we assume that you know basic geometry, trigonometry, and vector algebra. Some knowledge of basic differential and integral calculus as well as matrix-vector equations is an advantage. We also expect you to have some previous programming experience. In particular, we assume that you are familiar with a programming language such as C/C++, Java, Python, or Matlab.

During the course, we will be working with C++. Some framework code will be handed out for the course. You are allowed to use any compiler that you can make it work on (Visual Studio or CLion tend to work). The lab computers use Visual C++, so this is the default choice. If you plan to use Visual C++, but have no previous experience with Visual Studio, we suggest that you read the following book chapter:

Chapter 1: Programming with Visual C++. In Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2013, Wiley, 2013.

If you have no previous experience with C++ programming, some resources are available on DTU Learn.

Lab Journal

You are expected to maintain a lab journal where you write about your results at the exercises. The lab journal should contain all the deliverables listed in the worksheets. Include relevant code snippets, rendered images, and answers to the occasional questions in the worksheets. The lab journal must be submitted to DTU Learn (Assignments) before the deadline (see above).

Project

Toward the end of the course you must choose a minor project to work on. Some projects will be proposed at the lectures. A project of your own choosing is acceptable as long as it has a reasonable connection with the course. You can choose one of the proposed projects or hand in a short project description (one paragraph) and get it approved by the course responsible. The project must be submitted to DTU Learn (Assignments) before the deadline (see above). This submission must include a project report of the following structure: Introduction, Method, Implementation, Results, Discussion, so that it is possible to understand what you developed and the intensions and ideas behind the project. Include a zip-file containing the code.

Assessment

The assessment is based on your lab journal and project report (and associated code). These must be collected in one or two pdf files and a supplementary zip-file with code and uploaded to DTU Learn (Assignments) before the deadline (see above). There is no oral examination in this course. Your work is assessed in its entirety and you will be graded using the 7-step scale.

As a rough guideline, the project is usually 40% to 50% of the grade because it is carried out more independently. The exercises are then roughly 50% to 60% of the grade. You need more than 50% to pass. This means that it is very difficult to pass the course if you do not hand in a project together with a project report, and it is not possible to pass if you do not hand in any solutions for any of the worksheets. On the other hand, if you do 75% of the exercise worksheets and work your way through the project and write a decent project report for this work, you will probably pass with a decent grade. The word "probably" in this context means "depending on the correctness of your solutions".

Individualization

In case you work in a group, it is important that proper credit is assigned to your collaborator(s) and that your final hand-in is individualized.

As an example, you can work on exercises and project in a group of two and each write your own lab journal and project report. These must then clearly state who you collaborated with.

It is allowed to write lab journal and project report in a group of two (or perhaps three), but then you must clearly state the main responsible for each part of the lab journal and the project. In the project report, you can share main responsibility for introduction and discussion. Having assigned main responsibility of a part to one person in the group does not mean that the other person did not contribute to this part. A statement saying that all group members contributed equally is inadequate.

Feedback

Use your current status with respect to solving the worksheets and completing your project as an indicator of your performance. Ask instructors during exercise sessions to get an indication of the correctness of your solutions or the level of ambition of your project work.

About the exercises

Computers are available in the lab: Building 305, Room IT005. For most of the exercises, we use a C/C++ compiler such as Visual Studio 2017/2019. We recommend that you work on exercises in groups of two, but write individual lab journals. You must submit your final lab journal and project to DTU Learn individually. When submitting, it is important that you explain who you collaborated with (if any), see section above on individualization.

The user-id for the system is your ordinary DTU user-id. You can use the lab in the period reserved for the course. At other times you have to respect reservations. Remote login is not permitted. In vacant periods, you can use the workstations on a first come, first served basis. You need your student identity card to enter the lab and you have to show the card on any request.

Do not use the C-disk for storing your data. The lab computers should provide access to your student home directory. There is no back-up of the lab computers. The C-disk may be cleaned daily.

Preliminary Weekly Schedule

Week	Subject	Curriculum	Exercises
1 1/9	Introduction, raster images, ray casting.	B: Chapters 1-2 B: Chapter 3 B: Chapter 4-4.3 + 4.6	Worksheet 1
2 8/9	Ray-object intersection, shading.	B: Section 4.4 [and 2.7] B: Section 4.5	Worksheet 1
3 15/9	Shadows, reflections and refractions, ray tracing.	B: Section 4.7 B: Section 4.8 + 13.1	Worksheet 2
4 22/9	Texture mapping.	B: Sections 11-11.3	Worksheet 3
5 29/9	Meshes, interpolation, space subdivision.	B: Chapter 12 B: Section 10.2.2 [and 2.7]	Worksheet 4
6 6/10	Physics of light, radiometry, photometry.	B: Chapter 18	Worksheet 5
7 13/10	Global illumination, rendering equation, anti-aliasing.	B: Chapter 23 B: Section 13.4.1	Worksheet 6
8 27/10	Photon mapping.	[Jensen and Christensen 2000, pp. 11-38] [Arvo and Kirk 1990]	Worksheet 7
9 3/11	BRDF, Fresnel reflectance, absorption.	B: Chapter 24 [and 13.1]	Worksheet 8
11 10/11	Environment lighting, sampling, path tracing.	B: Sections 11.4.5, 20.2.3, 21.2 B: Chapter 14 B: Sections 23.2-23.3	Worksheet 9
10 17/11	Production rendering, project proposals.	[Burley 2012] [Burley 2015] (B: Chapter 25, optional)	Worksheet 10
12 24/11	GPU acceleration.	[Parker et al. 2010, Sections 1-5, 8-11]	Project work
13 1/12	Tone reproduction. Course finalization.	(B: Chapter 21, optional)	Project work